The Complete Trilogy by Piers Platt

Author:Piers Platt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Piers Platt
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

In the pilot’s seat of the Liberty Belle, Talus flipped through several screens on his computer. Through the viewport at the front of the bridge, a massive asteroid hung suspended in space, rotating slowly in front of the ship.

“Yeah, that’s what did it,” he said. “The ship’s collision avoidance system pulled us out of FTL. It must have sensed the asteroid’s mass.”

“Well, where the hell did it come from?” Muir asked, eyeing the asteroid with concern. “It wasn’t here on our flight back from Olympus.”

“I guess it just drifted across our flight path,” Talus said, shrugging. “There are a lot of uncharted asteroids out there.” He typed on the screen for a second. “Except … that’s weird.”

“What?” Muir asked.

“The asteroid’s got a bit of axial rotation, but it doesn’t have much velocity. We’re pretty much at a dead stop right now, and it hasn’t moved relative to us at all.”

“So it can’t have drifted across our path – it’s not drifting at all,” Muir said.

“I mean, not unless it hit something that caused it to stop right here,” Talus said. “It could have hit another object, I guess.”

Muir frowned. “And whatever it hit caused it to lose all forward momentum, and it just happened to do that right along our typical flight path to Olympus?” She shook her head. “I don’t like this.” She pulled her headset on, and opened up the long-range communications app at her computer station. “Speaking of impacts, what hit us? We felt something hit the hull, right after we decelerated.”

“Dunno,” Talus said. “Let me do a full sensor scan.”

“Then let’s get the hell out of here,” Muir said. “This thing is giving me the creeps.” On her computer, she selected the radio channel for Harrison’s Waypoint.

“There’s another ship out there,” Talus said, his voice rising. “It’s right behind us!”

The view from the Liberty Belle’s aft-facing camera appeared on the bridge vidscreen. Another ship sat facing them, less than a hundred meters behind them. Thick cables linked the other ship to the aft quarter of the Liberty Belle, and as Muir watched, several figures detached themselves from the other ship’s hull, and slid rapidly along the cables, landing on their own hull.

“Fire her up!” Muir yelled, and Talus jammed his joystick forward, throwing power into the engines.

“Pirates?” he asked.

“They don’t look like they’re stopping by for a social call,” Muir observed, noting weapons slung over the backs of the figures.

“They’re hooked on real good,” Talus said. “Must have harpooned us when we first came out of FTL. I’m not going to be able to shake them off.”

“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” Muir said, speaking into her headset’s microphone. “This is the Liberty Belle. We are being boarded by a hostile party. Coordinates to follow.”

Talus grunted, twisting the joystick in his hand, trying to tangle the cables linking them to the other ship. But the other ship turned with them, and stayed firmly attached. On the camera, Muir saw the boarding party split up, each group heading for a different outer hatch.

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